Over the next four years, the state plans to build a big crosstown road that will change the way many drivers get around Anchorage: West Dowling Road, running east and west from the Old Seward Highway to Minnesota Drive.
Dowling is south of International Airport Road and parallel to it but longer.
East Dowling has already been expanded and extended from Elmore Road to the Old Seward.
Now the focus is on West Dowling. When West Dowling is done, drivers will be able to travel on a five-lane street with limited stoplights from Elmore to Minnesota, said state Department of Transportation project manager James Amundsen.
The project will cost about $80 million, Amundsen said. And most, if not all, of the money is already approved.
West Dowling exists today between C Street and the Old Seward mostly as a minor two-lane road. The upcoming project will expand that and extend Dowling into new territory from C to Minnesota.
Tie in other new roads on the east end, and the new east-west route extends from Boniface Parkway to Minnesota.
FEWER JAMS ON DIMOND, TUDOR
The expanded east-west connection is expected to reduce traffic on two other busy east-west arterials, Tudor Road and Dimond Boulevard. Tudor and Dimond each carry around 40,000 cars and trucks daily, Amundsen said. An estimated 20,000 drivers daily will use Dowling.
Anchorage has a handful of major roads that take drivers from the east edge of the city to the west -- Fifth and 15th avenues, the Northern Lights-Benson Boulevard combination, Tudor and Dimond, and, farther south, O'Malley Road.
While there's not a lot of talk about West Dowling around town, it's been a subject of controversy at the Taku-Campbell Community Council meetings, said council president Ronald Jordan. Residents of a neighborhood across from ChangePoint church are worried about noise, and some businesses around Arctic Boulevard are hoping for a ramp off the new road, Jordan said.
"The road projects are needed. It's just a question of how they do it," he said.
The Dowling project will also benefit walkers and bicycle riders. The entire distance will feature a multi-use trail on one side, sidewalk on the other, and bike lanes attached to the road, Amundsen said.
CAMPBELL CREEK CROSSING
Notably, the state will create a Campbell Creek trail crossing under Dowling -- which will be built up to make room for the trail -- between the Old Seward and C. Now trail users take their chances with traffic, crossing the street to get to the trail on the other side.
The remake of Dowling from the Old Seward to C Street is scheduled for construction in 2011 and 2012. Now mostly two lanes, it dead-ends on the east side of C Street. Potter Drive, which runs into Dowling, and becomes the main road part of the way, will end up as an offshoot as Dowling is expanded.
The Dowling section from C Street to Minnesota will be all new road, and is under design, to be built in 2013 and 2014, Amundsen said.
The plan calls for Dowling to swoop in a broad curve from C Street west and then south.
Dowling will pass by little-known Tina Lake, hidden behind an industrial area.
It will curve south as it rolls over the top of Arctic Boulevard, then head just past ChangePoint church and soccer dome to Raspberry Road.
Except for the church, the western end of Dowling covers mostly industrial area.
A NOISE-RIDDEN NEIGHBORHOOD
There's one neighborhood next to the C Street-to-Minnesota section, south of Raspberry and next to Minnesota. The state will not need to buy any residential property in this stretch for right-of-way, Amundsen said.
But the residents at the end of Chad, Cheryl and Rovenna streets are wrestling with noise issues.
When the city extended Raspberry Road past these houses in 2007, the three neighborhood streets were blocked at the Raspberry end -- with emergency gates to allow fire trucks and police through -- to prevent a lot of traffic cutting through the neighborhood.
The Raspberry extension upped the noise level for some residents. Now Raspberry and Dowling are going to join near ChangePoint, causing potentially even more noise in the neighborhood.
As part of the Dowling project, the state will build a barrier that should help dampen traffic sounds for much of the neighborhood, including Chad and Cheryl residents. But it doesn't extend to Cliff Sitton's house next to Raspberry on Rovenna, because Dowling curves away from the neighborhood at that point. He's not happy. Sometimes, he said, "It's so noisy here that I can't sleep."
AN ARCTIC OFF RAMP
A remaining question mark for West Dowling: whether there will be an on-off ramp on the north side of Dowling between C and Arctic, around 59th Avenue. Dowling will be elevated over Arctic with no connection between the two roads unless the state builds a ramp.
Ken Fuller's family has owned property around 59th and Arctic for 50 years, he said, and has several office warehouses in the vicinity.
"The on-off ramp would definitely be handy for us and the city, he said. "For the long-term accessibility of the city, it makes no sense they wouldn't have that spur off to Arctic."
Still, Fuller said, extending Dowling to Minnesota is an important step.
"On this side of town, there are really only two major corridors from the mountains to the water. It's vitally necessary."
Amundsen said including the Arctic-area ramp depends on three things, none of which are resolved yet: whether there's enough money to pay for it; whether the city agrees to own and maintain it after it's built; and whether the property owners along the ramp would be willing to sell the property that's needed to the state.
The official purpose of the project wouldn't allow condemning property along the offramp, if the owners don't want to sell, he said.
Find Rosemary Shinohara online at adn.com/contact/rshinohara or call her at 257-4340.
By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA
rshinohara@adn.com